What Are Claude Skills? Plain-English Guide + a Skill You Can Copy

A Claude skill is a saved set of instructions that teaches Claude to do one task your way, every time, without you repeating yourself. It's a folder with a file called SKILL.md that says what the task is, when to use it, and how to do it, plus any templates or scripts it needs. Claude only reads a skill when your request matches it. You turn skills on at Customize → Skills on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans. This guide explains the idea in plain English, how skills differ from prompts, projects, connectors, and plugins, and gives you a working skill you can copy and upload in about ten minutes.

Checked against Anthropic's skills documentation (opens in a new tab) on October 9, 2026.

TL;DR

• A skill = your process, written down once. Brand voice, a report format, a review checklist, a client email sequence.
• Claude loads it only when it's relevant. It sees each skill's one-line description, and reads the full instructions only when your request matches.
• Turn them on at Customize → Skills. Skills need Code execution and file creation switched on under Settings → Capabilities.
• Anthropic includes some already: skills for creating Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and PDF files run automatically.
• They follow you around. Skills you add are saved to your account, so they work in chat on web, desktop, and mobile, and in Claude Code when you sign in.
• Teams can share them. On Team and Enterprise you can share a skill with specific people or publish it to the whole organization.
• Only use skills you trust. Skills you upload or that others share aren't reviewed by Anthropic; read them before turning them on.

The problem skills solve

Every business has its own way of doing things: how you write to clients, what your weekly report looks like, which checks a contract goes through. Without skills, you explain that to Claude every time. You paste the same style guide, correct the same mistakes, and get slightly different results each week.

A skill fixes that permanently. Anthropic's own advice is that a skill pays off when Claude does a task for you repeatedly and you want it done the same way every time, especially if you keep correcting it with the same instructions.

Skills vs. prompts, projects, connectors, and plugins

These get mixed up constantly. Here's the plain-English version, based on Anthropic's comparison (opens in a new tab):

The most common mix-up: a skill can't reach your other apps by itself. A skill can tell Claude how to use a connector (which folder to save to, which template to use), but the connector does the actual connecting.

How skills work behind the scenes

Claude doesn't read every skill at the start of a conversation. It works in three stages:

1. It knows what's available. Claude sees each skill's name and one-line description. That's all.
2. It loads the one that fits. When your request matches a description, Claude reads that skill's full instructions.
3. It opens extra files only when needed. If the instructions point to a template or a script, Claude opens it at that step.

This is why you can have lots of skills turned on without slowing Claude down, and why the description is the most important sentence in any skill: it's the only part Claude sees before deciding whether to use it.

How to turn skills on and use them

Go to Customize → Skills (opens in a new tab) in claude.ai or the desktop app. Here's roughly what you'll see:

1. Make sure code execution is on. Skills run in Claude's code sandbox, so Code execution and file creation must be enabled under Settings → Capabilities. On Team and Enterprise, an Owner turns it on under Organization settings → Capabilities.
2. Turn a skill on. Select Turn on on its row, or open it and use the switch at the top.
3. Just ask. Describe your task, and Claude uses a matching skill automatically. To pick one yourself, type / in the message box and choose it.

Build your first skill: a client follow-up email skill

Here's a complete, working skill you can copy. It writes follow-up emails after a client meeting in a consistent voice and format. Change the details in the brackets to match your business.

Prefer a form? Our Claude skill builder builds the file and the zip for you and checks the naming rules. To do it by hand:

Step 1. Create a folder named exactly client-follow-up.

Step 2. Inside it, create a plain text file named SKILL.md with this content:

---
name: client-follow-up
description: Write a follow-up email to a client after a meeting or call, using our house voice and format. Use when the user asks for a follow-up, recap, or thank-you email to a client, or pastes meeting notes and asks what to send.
---
 
# Client follow-up emails
 
Write follow-up emails the way [Your Company] does.
 
## Format
1. Subject line: "[Topic] — next steps" (under 8 words).
2. First line: thank them for their time, mention one specific thing they said.
3. A short "What we agreed" list, 2-4 bullets, taken only from the notes.
4. A "Next steps" list: each item has an owner and a date.
5. Close with one clear question or call to action. Sign as [Your Name].
 
## Voice
- Warm, plain, and brief. Under 150 words in the body.
- No "I hope this email finds you well." No exclamation marks.
- Use the client's first name.
 
## Rules
- Never invent a decision, date, or price that isn't in the notes.
  If something is missing, write [CONFIRM: what's missing] instead.
- If the notes mention a problem or complaint, acknowledge it before next steps.
 
## Example
Notes: "Met Dana from Brightline. Wants quote for 3 office locations.
Concerned about install timeline before Jan. I'll send quote Fri."
 
Subject: Office quote — next steps
 
Hi Dana,
 
Thanks for walking me through the three Brightline locations today,
and for flagging the January deadline up front.
 
What we agreed:
- I'll quote all three locations together.
- Install timing is the priority.
 
Next steps:
- Me: send the quote by Friday.
- You: confirm site contacts for each location.
 
Does a Monday call to walk through the quote work for you?
 
[Your Name]

Step 3. Zip the folder itself, not the files inside it. On a Mac, right-click the folder and choose Compress. The zip must contain client-follow-up/SKILL.md; if SKILL.md sits at the top of the zip, Claude won't recognize it.

Step 4. Upload the zip at Customize → Skills, then turn it on.

Step 5. Test it by pasting rough meeting notes:

That [CONFIRM] flag is the skill's "never invent" rule doing its job. Prefer to skip the file-writing? Turn on Anthropic's skill-creator skill (listed under Customize → Skills as from Anthropic) and ask Claude to build a skill with you, then edit what it produces.

Rules for a good skill

From Anthropic's guide to creating skills (opens in a new tab):

• name: lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens, up to 64 characters, and it must match the folder name.
• description: up to 1,024 characters. Say what it does and when to use it, using the words you'd actually type.
• Keep SKILL.md under 500 lines. Put long reference material in separate files and mention them at the step where they're needed.
• One task per skill. Several focused skills work better than one giant one.
• Show an example of the input and the output you want.
• No passwords or API keys in a skill. Everyone you share it with gets its files. Use a connector instead.

Where skills work

Skills you add in claude.ai or the desktop app are saved to your account, so you have them in chat on web, desktop, and mobile. Claude Code picks them up when you sign in with the same account, and Cowork tasks can use them too. Skills you add from the Claude Code command line stay on that machine. In Claude Code you can also keep skills as folders in ~/.claude/skills/ or a project's .claude/skills/.

Developers can use skills through the Claude API and Agent SDK as well.

Sharing skills with your team

On Team and Enterprise plans, open a skill at Customize → Skills and use Share to give it to specific people or Publish to org to make it available to everyone. Owners can also provision skills organization-wide. A skill's page shows how much your organization has used it.

To install several skills plus the connector they use in one go, package them as a plugin (opens in a new tab).

The open standard

Skills follow the Agent Skills specification (opens in a new tab), an open standard. A skill you write for Claude also works in other AI tools that adopt the spec, so the effort carries over if your team uses more than one tool. Anthropic publishes example skills you can read and copy in its skills repository (opens in a new tab), and community directories list many more.

A note on safety

A skill's instructions and scripts run as part of your conversation. Anthropic doesn't review skills you upload yourself or that someone shares with you. Before turning one on, open it and read SKILL.md and every file inside. Look for anything that doesn't match what the skill says it does, such as instructions to send data somewhere or fetch content from an unknown website. Treat a skill from a stranger the way you'd treat software from one.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Claude Agent Skill?

A skill is a folder containing a SKILL.md file of instructions, plus optional templates, reference files, and scripts, that teaches Claude to do a specific task your way. Claude loads it automatically when your request matches the skill's description. Skills are available on Pro, Max, Team, and Enterprise plans.

What's the difference between a skill and a prompt?

A prompt is an instruction for one conversation that you have to repeat each time. A skill is saved once and loads automatically whenever a task matches it, in any conversation. Use a prompt for a one-off and a skill for anything you do repeatedly.

What's the difference between Claude skills and plugins?

A skill teaches Claude one task. A plugin is a package that can hold several skills together with connectors, commands, and agents, so you install a whole setup at once. You can add a skill on its own or as part of a plugin.

Where do I find skills in Claude?

Go to Customize → Skills in claude.ai or the desktop app. The Your skills tab lists skills you created, ones from your organization, ones shared with you, and ones from Anthropic and partners. The Discover tab lists skills you can add. Code execution and file creation must be turned on under Settings → Capabilities.

How do I create a custom skill?

Create a folder named after your skill and add a SKILL.md file with a name and description at the top, followed by your instructions. Zip the folder itself and upload it at Customize → Skills, then turn it on. Or turn on Anthropic's skill-creator skill and ask Claude to build one with you.

Are Claude skills safe to use?

Skills can include instructions and scripts that run in your conversation, and Anthropic doesn't review skills you upload or that others share with you. Only use skills from sources you trust, and read every file in a skill before turning it on.

Start with one skill

Pick the task you re-explain to Claude most often, and turn it into a skill using the template above. One good skill teaches you more than any guide. For the bigger picture of using Claude well at work, the free Claude Cowork course walks through real prompts and workflows, built for owners and small teams rather than developers. For more detail on building skills, see how to create Claude skills.